SPRINGFIELD -- The bus started moving, the driver wasn't at the wheel, and 15-year-old Sophia Garcia thought she was going to die.

Garcia, of Springfield and a student at Central High School, was one of the passengers on the out-of-control bus that rolled down State Street and knocked down a traffic signal before hitting a retaining wall outside the federal courthouse.

One day removed the the crash, and sporting large bruises from where she flew into the seat in front of her upon impact, Garcia said, "I'm so relieved I'm alive. I was thinking I was going to die."

Garcia reached out to The Republican and MassLive.com to tell her account of what happened on the bus. Her account differs somewhat from what other witnesses and the police said shortly after the crash.

The single element that is not up for dispute is that the driver of the bus was not behind the wheel when it started rolling.

Passengers on the bus said Thursday that the driver had pulled over on State near Spring Street and stepped off while removing some unruly teens from the bus.

One nonpassenger witness said the driver was having some mechanical issues and was outside the bus inspecting it when the airbrakes gave out and it rolled down the street.

The account relayed by the Springfield police said the driver was having mechanical problems, and upon instructions from supervisors, he was trying to disconnect and then reconnect the battery when the bus lurched forward.

PVTA officials are declining to comment on the crash pending an investigation.

Garcia said she was sitting toward the front of the bus when some high school boys in the back became unruly. One of them somehow kicked the rear door open, and the driver pulled over an attempted to fix it.

Passengers began shouting at the driver that they wanted to be moving, and the driver was yelling back, "I can't drive until I get the door closed."

Garcia said, "I never saw him checking the battery. I only saw him checking the back door."

She said that while the driver was outside, some girl began playing around in the driver's seat, and when the girl moved the steering wheel, the bus started to roll.

"She moved the steering wheel, the bus started going, and I was like 'What?'"

Garcia said she feared the bus would roll straight down steep hill on State Street, smash into cars and burst into flames. It was here that she was thinking she was going to die.

As the bus continued moving, someone grabbed the steering wheel and turned the bus to the right, causing it to jump the curb and slam into the courthouse retaining wall. She said she is not sure it was the same girl or someone else who turned the wheel.

Garcia said there were sparks flying all over the place just before the bus hit the retaining wall and she thought the bus was going to catch fire. Before hitting the wall, the bus knocked down a traffic signal pole and dislodged a signal control box.

"It really scared me," she said.

She said at this point she was practically hysterical on the bus, and an older man helped her out through through the hole where the windshield was.

Garcia said she did not tell the police what she saw at the scene because she was too panic stricken to speak.

Two of the 22 passengers were treated at the hospital. Garcia told her parents about her injuries but did not want to go to the hospital. She said she woke up this morning with a bruises on her arm and chest from slamming into the seat in front of her.

Her parents were talking about suing PVTA and the driver, but Garcia said she doesn't want to see the driver lose his job.

Garcia said she takes a PVTA bus every day to and from school. Schools were closed Friday for the Veterans Day observance, and that gave her a repreive from riding the bus. She said she is not sure if she will take the bus to school on Monday.